About Movement Voter Project

Movement Voter Project (MVP) is a service to donors – from grassroots individual donors to major donors and foundations. We talent-scout both national movement-building efforts and local efforts in all 50 states that are focused on voter engagement.

Our work, and the work of the organizations we highlight, is ongoing, and our name reflects that. That’s why we go not only by the MVP moniker, but by the year we face: In our founding year, we were Movement 2016, we are Movement 2017, and will become Movement 2018, and so on. Our project is committed to both short-term gains and long-term change.

We spent six months in 2016, and consulted over 50 experts, to develop a list of local movement-building efforts, a list that continues to grow and be refined. Specifically, we have sought organizations that are:

1. Trusted messengers who organize year-round on local and national issues that have deep salience to their local constituencies (racial and criminal justice, immigrant rights, college affordability, climate, living wages, etc.).

2. Rooted in the communities they serve and organize (low-income communities, communities of color, immigrants, youth and students, renters, etc.).

5. Collaborative, and known to “play well with others” organizationally.

On November 9, 2016, we immediately started organizing for 2018. But we quickly realized that movements need money now. And in addition to local groups, there is a gap in funding scrappy national networks that, despite often bare-bone budgets, are creating real resistance and advancing real change, on any number of crucial fronts, at this very crucial moment.

We recommend both 501(c)(3) non-partisan groups and explicitly progressive 501(c)(4), 527, PAC, State PAC, or Super PAC groups that do their work in communities representing the true diversity of the American people: In communities of color; among working class, rural, low-income, disabled, elderly and young/new voters; among students, renters, veterans, new Americans, those for whom English is a second language, and others who may have additional barriers or may need additional support to have their voices heard in the civic process.

MVP is maintained by a philanthropic advising service called Gamechanger Advising, powered by a growing team and growing network of advisors and partners. We started Movement 2016 because every election cycle people ask us questions like: “What groups should I give to, to have the biggest impact?” or “How do I fund groups in the South led by people of color?” MVP has become a powerful way to make the answers to these questions known and more accessible to a wider public. As far as we know, it is the best (and only) resource of its kind.

*MVP is a work in progress. If you would like to nominate a new group or have feedback on a group that is already listed, or have other comments or questions, please email advisor@movementvote.org.